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This show makes my heart hurt. Galactica picks up weird ship dradis signals and, assuming it's a Cylon vessel, immediately freaks out. After a bunch of military mumbo about proving that everybody is who they say they are, we realize that we've just run into the Battlestar Pegasus, which, thanks to fifteen fishy circumstances, has managed to (a) survive the original Cylon attack and lose only about 30% of its crew; (b) jump to triangulated location "wherever" without ending up half-Shadowcatted into an asteroid; (c) pick up various crewmen and supplies from other survivor ships and places without anybody giving any details; and (d) track a previously-unmentioned Cylon fleet to where it's been following Galactica. The good news is that their Chief looks to be cool and smart like ours, their XO is maybe worse, and their pilots make ours look clever and fun and classy. The bad news is, their ship is commanded by Admiral Nelena Cain, whom we'll talk about momentarily, and is full of terrible, awful people. People that make last week's recap look less like a proposal for the equivalent of the Geneva Convention and more like the manifesto of the People Against Scraping Your Fork Against Your Plate Because It Makes That Hideous Sound And I Have A Slight Headache. Apollo, Tigh and Helo meet their opposite numbers -- finding them creepy -- while Laura immediately wigs hardcore due to the extreme intensity and general wackness of Admiral Cain. The thing is that, militarily, "Admiral" is WAY better than "Commander," which means that half of our two authority figures have just been usurped, and Adama is no longer Big Boss of the Fleet. Cain takes her place with a certain elegance, stealing Adama's kids Apollo and Starbuck for the Pegasus. She mentions how the Cylon jump that has apparently been following our Fleet contains one particular weird-looking ship, of which they seem very protective. Theories are advanced, but nobody says the obvious -- that it's clearly the Ernestine switch operator ship for transmitting dead Cylon souls back to the Cylonplex. Cain continues to impinge on all kinds of things, justifying all of it by recapping the entire last two seasons' worth of Galactica's terrible ideas and fuckups, with a distinctly un-Strega-like lack of humor, but a whole lot of being correct about every single part of it. However, anyone would take Adama's somewhat messed-up track record over Cain's half-told tale, as horrors accrete: the Pegasus XO tells Tigh a not-so-shaggy-dog story about how she shot a crewman in the head for disobeying a risky order, only to fake-laugh about how it was a joke. Gaius and Six are introduced to the Pegasus's own captive Cylon, a Six model named Gina, whose hair is browner and who -- making Galactica's treatment of Boomer, and frankly Leoben, positively Four Seasons-esque -- has been tortured and gang-raped by the entire Pegasus crew of asshole pirate Kurtzes into severe shock and catatonia. Six and Gaius are disgusted and sad. I'm mostly pissed. And sad. The Pegasus pilots and techs gross out even Cally with their tales of sexual toaster humiliation and abuse, and one of them lets it slip that their Grand Dragon of Interrogation is currently trying the same routine on Boomer, in alleged pursuit of info on that mysterious Cylon ship. Helo and Chief combine forces, running to Boomer's cell in time to stop anything much beyond the usual humiliation Boomer's now used to. They accidentally kill the Interrogator himself, which is fun to watch. Less fun by 100% to watch is Boomer coming wicked close to getting violated. Just because this is the best show on television doesn't mean it's not also sometimes the worst show on television. Or at least the hardest. Apollo goes out with the execrable Pegasus CAG for Cylon recon, after sending some secret photographic equipment along with Starbuck, who's flying the Blackbird Laura all stealthy-like to learn about the HMS Ernestine. Cain sends Helo and Chief to a Kangaroo Court Martial so Gitmo we don't even see it, for killing the Interrogator, and pronounces them traitors and worm food after a good three seconds of deliberation. Adama then flips out like some kind of ninja, sending Vipers by the fistful to beat Cain down and get his people back, as Hardcore Cain orders her own set of Vipers in response. Whoa. To be continued in January. Argh! Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously, Lee hated Helo for cuddling with Boomer, and then Helo and Chief fought about it, but Boomer calmed Helo down. Chief made the BlackbirdLaurafrom scratch, and Starbuck thought she was so damn cute scaring Apollo by going off-dradis.
We open on the alert alarm sound, and see an unknown ship on dradis. Gaeta and Tigh are on CIC, sending everyone to action stations. "This is not a drill," Gaeta says, and that's always good. They communicate the situation to Adama, in his quarters.
"Looks like you picked a hell of a day for a visit," Adama tells the President. Tigh informs them that the size of the unknown ship would seem to indicate that it's a basestar. Adama calls for an emergency jump, and he and Roslin book it to CIC.
While Apollo radios in that he and Kat are headed for the putative basestar, and Dualla gives him an ETA on backup Vipers as Adama enters. He asks for the "sitrep" for about the fifteenth time. Somebody likes the word as much as I do. Gaeta tells us that the basestar as launched putative Raiders in response to the Alert Vipers. Tigh informs Roslin rather respectfully that their emergency jump is set for two minutes. Speaks highly that the entire Fleet can get their jump together so fast. I mean, I know it's the whole point of the Fleet, bust ass all over the place, but still. Gaeta is confused by the fact that he's picking up Colonial transponders, which excites Roslin. Tigh, of course, takes the half-empty on that, saying that it's now to the point where they're "using [Galactica's] own signals against [it]." Adama, with some hope in him, duallas for a hold on weapons and the jump, and Tigh looks at him like he's nuts. Roslin's intrigued. Adama gaetas for a ship-to-ship communication, starting with "hostile challenge and ID." Because, as usual, he's willing to believe the impossible. Which is, after all, why anybody ever lives on this show. It is at this point that music -- weird music -- starts. I think I like it, or at least don't hate it, but it's very unsettling.
At a range of 1700 somethings, Dualla hails the ship. Their XO, Fisk, comes over the radio: "This is the battleship Pegasus to the ship claiming to be Galactica. Please respond." Tigh's first word was NO, of course, so he explains that the entire Fleet was destroyed back in the miniseries. Like everybody's going to go, "Good point!" Dualla, at Adama's request, authenticates some recognition codes, and we hear the voice of Admiral Nelena Cain: "Adama, is that you?" He recognizes the voice and the weird music gets crazier. I don't know if they'll talk about this in Part II, but just to put your mind at ease: yes, Cain is very young for an Admiral, but was a real rising star in the Colonial Fleet -- I'm guessing of the hugely leapfrogging, ambitious, slightly grey type, not that a woman ever needs to be a snake to succeed. And yes, Cain's been Adama's boss before, technically, because she was promoted to Admiral in command of Battlestar Group 75 before the massacre. So they know each other and Adama thinks of her as an authority. And finally, nobody can be blamed for not knowing that Michelle Forbes always means bad news, because that's what she rocks at.
I bring this up because so much of this episode is a compare-and-contrast on the ways that being homeless has made the two ships crazy. For Galactica, it's been about losing a little bit of protocol in exchange for becoming a family of survivors -- the only human beings in the universe except for, possibly, the huge lie of the thirteenth Colony -- and opening up that family to include the civilians of the Fleet, symbolized by the relationship between Adama and Roslin. For the Pegasus, it's meant...something else entirely. Something bad, but consider the fact that the Galactica's mandate now includes protecting all of humanity in addition to its own crew members' asses, while Pegasus -- which anyhow is overwhelmingly male, as far as we can see -- has been on the run, thinking themselves to be all that's left. And not only that, but in an entirely military environment. Control where there is no control. They're not only the human race, but also the entire Fleet, and those are two big things that Galactica kind of got to skip over, in some ways. It's a completely different situation, and we have to infer that...you know the last two seasons of this show? How hardcore and awesome and generally freaky and difficult and exciting and seat-of-your-pants they were? How scary every single day is? Now imagine that, but take out Adama, Roslin, Chief, Starbuck, Apollo, and Helo. Okay, now I want you to multiply Tigh by one hundred, and shoot up all the Viper pilots with 'roid rage and a little bit of Kat's crack. And now, run through the last two seasons with them, in your mind. God, just watch "33" with them. It's not that Cain happens to a priori have a ship full of assholes, or some kind of symbolic Mirror Universe awful crew; it's that they became this way, were made this way, and have lost something that is desperately important.
Anyway, on the Pegasus CIC desk, as noted, everybody's a guy, except for Cain, who's hardcore. Her hair is long and with chopped bangs, and Michelle Forbes is as beautiful and scary as ever. She's like the opposite of Mary McDonnell -- she emanates suspense and sinister fractures, whereas Roslin gives off an unending calm. Even when she's killing your ass. The ships and Viper squads stand down, and we get an exterior shot of the Pegasus -- it's a basic Battlestar but more awesome due to not being an actual museum -- as Apollo, Adama, and the suddenly guitar-rocking score collectively geek out over how beautiful it is to find more survivors.
Credits: I love the shot of the Caprica explosion, even though it is sad. The way he goes down and she's just standing there in silhouette. I don't ever watch the blipvert, due to a little movie called Anna To The Infinite Power, so I can't ever tell you what it has in it. There are 49,605 souls in the Fleet, but that's a technical, nautical term. "Souls." I'd downgrade the extra 1,300 as far as how much is actually left.
The Pegasus Raptor carrying the officers lands on the Galactica as our crew gets into formation. Of course Tigh is shouting at them, because he's old-school. Apollo follows suit with the Air Guard, and Roslin and Adama smile at each other. Gaius is there, as the Vice President, and looks batshit crazy. Apollo needles Starbuck about showing up at the last minute, and she flips it on him, turning it into another compliment of her bad-assery and disdain for convention. It's actually important this time instead of just post-feminist. Cain and her command staff exit the Raptor and stand in locked formation. It's fairly impressive, and shows off the billion guns they're packing nicely. The Galactica crew is wearing no guns, which makes the point that they're happy about seeing survivors, but also that they're less paranoid. Starbuck looks the Pegasus CAG up and down, thinking, "Well, I miss Anders, and I've fracked everyone on this ship, and at least he's not my brother." He looks at her like she's an alien. Cain comes hopping down off the Raptor, making even hopping seem imperious. Even the music gets scared. On Cain's approach, Adama salutes her, and she salutes back. This is where we're supposed to remember that "Admiral" outranks "Commander," but the whole scheme is a mishmash anyway and you know I don't register stuff like that. Adama presents Roslin as "President of the Colonies," and Cain gets perturbed for a second. She switches to "confused" instead, but Roslin just smiles, because she has class: "It's a long story. Welcome." Cain says that it's a pleasure, and then fully welcomes the Galactica "back to the Colonial Fleet." That's like the most telling line in the whole episode, because she's just openly telling you where she's at. Civilians do not enter into this; she's just considering our ship as another addition to her personal fleet (which is important later as well, with Laird). The entire crew starts cheering even though that was a TOTALLY BULLSHIT THING TO SAY, and the introductions start. The only one that really matters is the meeting between Taylor, the Pegasus CAG, and Starbuck and Apollo, because he's going to ride their asses later. Roslin and Cain hug, and it's pretty awkward but not terribly awkward because Roslin will hug even Cylons, and besides, if you get hugged by Roslin that's like getting hugged by your momma. Chief stands on the Raptor's running board, and smiles down at the celebration. Musically, it would seem Enya is also very happy about this, even though there is a little worry in her Enya voice.
Roslin, Cain, and Adama retire to Adama's quarters and start drinking, which is what I would do. Roslin gets all questiony, and it's kind of cute. Cain explains that -- for lack of a better plan, or in supreme hubris -- they've been tracking a Cylon Fleet. After figuring out that the Cylons were jumping to systems with natural resources, Pegasus decided to get ahead of them by scouting the systems themselves, so that they could do some guerilla shit on them. Somehow, this led them directly to the Galactica, but I can't remember the last time they jumped, so maybe they're talking about the Caprica system. Adama's impressed but a little thrown by the idea of one Battlestar throwing itself against that particular shiny brick wall over and over. Roslin asks how they survived the attack on the Colonies, and Cain makes her best face in the episode: sad, scared, broken, and proud. You haven't heard the story yet, but you know the story already, just from that face. Cain gets herself a drink.
Speaking of drinking, Tigh is meeting with Fisk, his opposite number, in the very appropriate Tool Room. Fisk very much enjoys the moonshine, and they marvel over how Galactica has managed to survive, tough old bird that she is. Fisk hits a bit too close to home about Galactica's decrepitude, and Tigh stands with a stinkface. Then it becomes a kind of "joke," as he says that Fisk will have to skip this round. It's a nice introductory scene, and Tigh's a great foil when you need to learn a whole lot about somebody, because he's all about reacting, which is hard to do as an actor. Fisk and Tigh both laugh, because they are drunks of a feather.
Cain tells the story: they were docked at the shipyard for Scorpion Fleet. "Scorpion," by the way, is pronounced like the most hateful animal ever created, instead of slant-rhyming with "Geminon" like the rest of the Colonies, which is good because that would sound idiotic. They were about to retire the ship for a three-month overhaul, and everybody was getting stuff together for shore leave. In case we ever get a bead on the differences between the Colonies, I'll note that Cain was planning on going to Tauron. Sounds about right, no offense. Roslin's sympathetic, as you can imagine. There were five ships, including two Battlestars, that got hit in the nuclear attack. The acting here is really amazing, because Cain's in it, for real: she's stayed in that moment this whole time, since the massacre, even more than our guys have. Horrible. Cain immediately ordered a jump to...nowhere, she explains crazily, and Roslin looks at her like she just figured out that this bitch is nuts. It's amazing how horrified she is by this blind jump. Adama commends her on a "gutsy move," but again, his whole life is mental blind jumps like this, followed by propaganda and lying, and it's what makes him cool. Roslin looks over at Adama. She's really not cool with that little part of the story. Cain doesn't have the heart to keep talking, or to go over Adama's own story -- framing it as an "I'm not going to make you go through with this right now" -- and asks him to send over his logs "when he gets the chance." At Adama's military "Yes, sir," Roslin finally gets it, allowing it to be explained to us who didn't get it before. She covers her look of shock and loss, which Cain picks up on, in the coolest way possible: "I sometimes forget about the rules of military protocol." Adama lays it on the line for Roslin, saying that Cain's now in command of the entire Fleet, although you know she's like, "But really, I just want command of the military ships." Cain's kind of relieved that she doesn't have to go there right away, and pleased that Adama just bluntly okayed the whole thing. She tells Roslin to trust her, adding, "While the chain of command is strict, it is not heartless." She turns to Adama: "And neither am I." Which remains to be seen. Cain: "This is your ship, and I have no desire to interfere with Galactica's internal affairs." Which remains to be a total lie.
Over the flickering light of Cain's suddenly combusting pants, Adama shows his appreciation. Roslin looks down like she's going to cry, because she just got this one on her side and now she's going to have to housebreak an insane military commander. Cain calls Roslin on this one, too, and I love that, because it's like, finally somebody's noticing how emotive McDonnell's acting really is. Men look at bodies first, women look at faces. Not that there's a whole lot of that kind of boy/girl talk necessary, especially with this very progressive show, and not that Cain is human enough to be called a "woman" anymore, but it's interesting. Tigh wouldn't notice a reaction that subtle if it were his own. Which wouldn't happen anyway, because he's permanently set to "drunk and grumpy," but you know what I mean. Thinking that this means emotions and sentiment are on the table, Roslin fucks up by explaining: "It's just...the Commander and I, we've been through a lot." That's a dumb move, Madame President, because Cain has literally no use for you whatsoever: you're a woman, you're not her elected president, you're a woman, a schoolteacher, a civilian, and a woman. Really, all you've told her is: "I've infected Adama with bad judgment and Lifetime movies. And now we're all going to have a nice cry together."
Luckily, Billy (hi Billy!) shows up before Roslin shoves her dainty foot further into her mouth; he pulls her away to do President stuff. (Bye Billy!) She shakes Cain's hand and there's a tiny emphasis on the pronoun here: "I can't tell you how grateful we are to have you here. Thank you for finding us." On the one hand, she's showing solidarity between the "we" of herself and Adama, and the "we" of the Fleet's civilians and Galactica, but then she follows it up with that thanks for "finding us," which is technically true but also strokes Cain's personal belief that she's the main character on this show. Which is what happens in survivor mode, where she is, and where she will never be allowed to leave. Things get intense, nonetheless. After Roslin leaves, Cain turns a face of real, actual disgust to Adama: "The Secretary of Education?" In that exhausted way he has, Adama simply offers that she's "come a long way." I like that he's allowing himself to get pulled into Cain's whole Season 1 vibe about that, instead of jumping angrily to Laura's defense -- it's a nice balance that should chill her out on being paranoid w/r/t Adama's loyalties. Cain somewhat sassily swings her hair with an "I'm sure."
Tigh and Fisk are still drinking, and Tigh gets Fisk to tell him a sweet little story about Cain. You know it's going to be light-hearted when Fisk's first response is "Officer's discretion?" Oh, hell. The story is that they were doing guerilla stuff on a Cylon comm relay, which should have been easy, but turned out to be a staging area, fifteen full Raider squadrons at readiness. (Tigh actually goes, "Whoa.") So of course Admiral Cain ordered the old XO to attack, because what's one Battleship against fifteen Raider squads but a recipe for success? Fisk points out that Cain and the old XO were very close and had worked together for years. You know where this shit is heading. Fisk gets up real close and library-voices, "He refused the order." Cain gets a Mutiny, eh? Never mind that it was an insane order. (If you're keeping track, that's now suicidal ideation and at least two actual attempts, on the part of Admiral Cain. And counting. Have you ever noticed that it's only ever your truly depressed friends or acquaintances who get obsessed with the end of the world? Think about it.)
Adama tells Cain about the Boomer situation, and she shockingly replies, "Really?" They have a Cylon prisoner as well. Adama -- even though it's really just to cover his ass so that she won't think he's hiding something or becoming a sympathizer, and not because he suddenly values Boomer as an asset to any extent -- goes right into a spiel about "ours has proven to be an excellent source of intelligence" and "very cooperative" and, not that this would be all that comforting, or all that true from what we've seen, that VP Gaius has been "working with her." While I appreciate the gesture toward "we're working on it," you should really stop mentioning the civil government, Bill. Just be glad Cain hasn't really seen Gaius in all his squirrely glory yet, or she'd slap you.
Meanwhile, Tigh's looking grossed out some more, asking what Cain did even though he already knows, and so do we. Fisk says she asked the guy for his gun, okay, pointed it at his head, and pulled the trigger, in front of the whole crew. This was smart as far as enforcing her authority, but dumb because she was asking for something retarded in the first place. Then she turned to Fisk. Tigh's really scared -- like, physically scared, at this point. Fisk ordered the attack, and Tigh's mind is now officially blown. There are a few minutes of horrified silence. (Imagine if Adama went crazy and started asking for weird shit, just like that. Not that Tigh would refuse, but if he did...my mind just went to a nice place.) Fisk starts laughing hysterically into the silence, seeing he's just wigged Tigh hardcore, and trying to cover it up. The old "I'm just kidding" line that automatically means you weren't. Tigh tries to smile, but he's freaked out to the max and can't stop shaking his head.
Cain leaves, apologizing that she takes no pleasure in relieving Adama of command, and he pshaws, and then he stands alone, glaring at nothing, worried about a whole bunch of things at once.
Starbuck and Apollo are checking out the Pegasus Vipers with Racetrack and some of the other ship's pilots. One has a long line of Raider drawings along its hull. They look like Decepticons. "Is this a scorecard?" asks Starbuck, and there's pride in the positive response. "You guys put scorecards? On the side of your ships?" Racetrack chides Starbuck, "Like you don't keep score," but Starbuck makes the distinction that she doesn't actually paint them on her Viper "like [she's] bragging to the whole fracking universe." I think I see what she's saying, but I'm not sure. She's so conservative and military about stuff like that I'd think she'd be impressed, but she does tend to draw little etiquette lines for herself. I, of course, agree with her in principle, but it's a surprising note to the character. Actually, no, I can see it, because she's deeply religious, and the whole Leoben thing got to her on that level. (Note: That's my favorite episode, and the actual reason that I love Starbuck, apart from the great acting. And why I love my airlock jokes. So now you know.) So that's how it makes sense to me. In addition to Starbuck's having a different kind of honor than these guys seem to. The pilot in question, callsign Whiplash, is like, "But there are forty-eight Decepticons!" and Starbuck snarks, "Special. Do you have caps and t-shirts too?" Helo -- who I was really hoping wasn't around for this conversation -- starts laughing in this very upsetting, angry, almost-hysterical way at this kind of lame joke. Poor Helo.
It's entirely tense, and then the other CAG, Taylor, walks up with a stick up his ass twice the size of whatever's got Apollo on edge all the time. He summons Apollo for a pedeconference incredibly rudely, and starts bitching about the Galactica's lack of Decepticons: "Encourages morale, gets competition going. Esprit de corps." (Octagon TVs, yeah, but they do speak French.) Apollo, defusing, admits that that's "one philosophy," which is at least as inflammatory as it is passive-aggressive. Taylor gets in Apollo's face, saying that it's Cain's philosophy, and that means it's Apollo's too. They are now centimeters apart as Apollo reminds him, "The name of my Commander is Adama," following up with a pointed but unnecessary and ultimately damaging "...which should be pretty easy to remember, because it's my name." Taylor calls Apollo a total daddy's boy and moves on with his demands. Lee kind of smiles here, angrily, but also like, "Why'd you have to start out acting like a dick?"
Gaius and Cain round a corner in the corridor as he's explaining that as head of Cylonology he's now focusing on "Cylon detection." Yes, and doing a bang-up job of it. Six is waiting around the corner in her red Marilyn number and smiles like a shark as Cain tells Gaius that she wants him to examine Pegasus's POW ASAP. Six whispers dreamily, "I wonder who the Cylon will turn out to be...Stranger? Familiar face? Trusted friend who suddenly turns out to be the enemy?" They make happy wiggly fingers at each other and it's very cute and kind of sexy. Cain snaps Gaius out of it, and he calls her "Commander." Ouch. She corrects him, and he apologizes for that one big-time.
In the Galactica hangar, their deck chief, name of Laird, is looking over the Blackbird Laura. He calls it "one ugly baby," but not in a mean way, and Chief begs his tech-to-tech pardon. Laird introduces himself and asks Chief politely to have a look around. Chief, realizing who he is, thanks him for some parts he's sent over, and invites him to explore. Laird notes the Blackbird's engines (DDG-62s, if you're nothing like me and will care or remember that), and informs Chief and Cally that he designed them himself. Chief and Cally have the same question: why's he on that ship if he's a civilian aeronautics engineer? I found out somewhere that Cally's not career; she was just serving a tour at the time of the massacre, with intent to leave. I don't know if I knew that and forgot it or what, but it puts a radically different spin on her scenes across the whole series, and on the character, than I had going. And her response here -- why it was her and not Chief himself, or some other hand, who wondered about that. Laird says that he was on the Scylla, which was picked up by the Pegasus: "Things happened." Like that's not cagey and Fisky enough, he changes the subject awkwardly: "Mind if I crawl around inside here? I heard you designed this yourself. I'd love to see how you did it." Chief, still digesting, gives him leave. My feeling is that this is a pointer to how the Admiral views Galactica herself: as a scrapyard from which she can take the best weapons, crew, etc. and keep her own self safe. Again, the Fleet could not matter less, because Admiral Cain is the Fleet, now.
Adama and Roslin are walking down a corridor talking about how Pegasus has been resupplying Galactica from its own reserve, but that nothing has gone to the Fleet yet. Adama assures Roslin that Cain said those supplies were on their way, and Roslin snits, "Well, at least she's taking your phone calls. I can't even get her to answer mine." Because you less than matter. Roslin takes off her glasses, which means intimacy, denial and/or bad news, just like on Buffy: "How are you doing with all this?" Adama knows that Roslin's not going to get this, because nobody's brain is naturally military, because so much of it is counterintuitive and has to be beaten into you: "She outranks me. It's as simple as that." Roslin (well-performed, this part, getting at the point in the emotional arc not only of their scene, but also their post-"Home," renegotiated relationship) murmurs comfortingly, "If President Adar stepped off that Raptor, I'd be elated -- grateful to have someone take over." Adama smiles modestly, because he knows they're on a wavelength. "And yet," she pauses. Adama: "I don't go to the and yet part. I've been taking orders my entire career. This is no different." Roslin smiles, but she's still bummed about it. She turns to go back to Colonial One -- I bet Billy's at like a five right now, stresswise, considering he came to get her from Adama's quarters about fifty scenes ago -- and thanks Adama as a Commander: "We would appreciate all the help you can give us." There's that goddamn we again. It hurts.
Tigh is in Adama's quarters, tail between his very rightfully terrified legs, spilling about his whole "officer's discretion" conversation. Adama says it sounds like Tigh and Fisk were both drunk, which is a little funny, and Tigh's response is "No question," which is much funnier, but Tigh knows straight up that Fisk wasn't lying. Good on you, Tigh. Adama can't handle Tigh making good choices, so he reins him in and begs him not to jump to conclusions. "Context matters," he gravels. Tigh goes, "'Context'?" and repeats the whole part about how Cain totally shot her XO, which: Bill, check out the context, already. Adama points out that Galactica once shot down an entire civilian transport with over a thousand people on board. "Says so right there," he says, pointing to the ship's logs he's getting ready for the Admiral. Tigh says, like a true alcoholic, "That was completely different. And we don't know there were people on that ship." Yeah we do, but I feel you here. I like Tigh in this episode all right, and I'm not just calling him a drunk as a cheap shot: it's that narcissistic "I'm super-special and your rules don't apply" followed by the complete denial of the facts that I love so much here. And I mean, of course he's getting all Mama Bear now, because Cain is going to call so much shit on their relationship that it will be amazing. After Adama expresses hope that his now-commanding officer will read the logs and comprehend the context of their more glaring fuckups, Tigh suggests getting her logs, "so we can put her in context." Adama agrees that would be nice.
Lieutenant Thorne leads Gaius (and Six) to the Pegasus brig, or wherever they're holding their prisoner. Lieutenant Thorne is a big guy who looks a bit like a Busey with silver hair going all over the place, but mostly like a nondescript Marine. Everybody's hair on the Pegasus is totally fucked up, by the way, which is a nice nod to their enreavering. Thorne warns Gaius not to get too close, and notes, "It killed seven of my crew." Six needles him, all, "You want the big, bad soldiers to protect you from the mean old Cylon prisoner?" Gaius responds to this obvious manipulation immediately, telling the Marines to back off. Gaius and Six enter the brig and Six begins to shake, utterly destroyed by what she sees. It's awful. Her emotions are rare but really, really tough sometimes. Six and Gaius approach slowly, not daring to get closer, because of how bad it is. "Oh, my God," she whispers, and she's not taking it in vain either. It's a prayer. Her hand goes to her mouth, like it did when the other Six saw Boomer's baby, and there's a long track into the glass cage, across the prisoner's prone body, her bruised, chained arms and legs, and up to her destroyed face. Six: "My God, Gaius. It's me." And even though you can't really tell right away, because she's so fucked up, it is in fact a Model Six. Her name is Gina, we'll learn in January, and either because she doesn't bleach her hair or because she's filthy, her hair is a much darker honey blonde than what we're used to. Our Six, it's tough because she barely shows feelings beyond smugness and anger, but when the other things peek out, it's devastating. The only other time we've seen her display any amount of compassion even close to this was for that baby she murdered on Caprica, which is, like, the most demanding, complicated part of the entire miniseries, emotionally. Point being, Tricia Helfer rules. Six and Gaius stare in silence and it's totally horrible watching them react. Their entire bodies get smaller and weaker and Six starts to shake, looking at herself. "Look at what they've done to her."
Baltar commands Thorne fairly confidently (although his voice breaks a little) to open the door, please. As they enter, Six gives Thorne a look of such concentrated rage and horror that he would probably shit his pants, if he could see her. It's powerful. I was going to say "if he were insane, and could see her," but that's...not so much an "if," unfortunately. The smell is clearly unbearable, and Gaius coughs a bit. The worse part is looking at Gina, I think. He leans over to get a closer look and Six -- usually completely in control of her movements and her body -- gets really awkward. It's hard to watch. "She must have struggled," Gaius says. "She must have fought back." Six, now openly sobbing, shouts, "That doesn't justify this!" Gaius holds up a finger from the floor: "Stop." He speaks to Gina in a low tone, quiet and worried: "Hello? Hello, can you hear me?" Six continues to lose it, making Gaius the calm one. Which is a good indicator of how fucked up this scene is. He anchors the whole thing, and Six just rants and raves and weeps: "She's obviously been abused. Tortured." Gaius is more interested in Gina's vitals, noting no obvious head trauma -- which is the worst thing, if you think about it, because she's in a total fugue state, and if she didn't get hit on the head, then you already know what's going on here -- and Six pulls Gaius off of Gina, screaming that he's not upset enough, basically. He's acting too cold and scientific, and she needs him to flip out with her: "Look at the abused woman lying there in front of you!" Gaius refuses to break eye contact as he comforts her, voice breaking. Six immediately gets it together a bit, hissing "Don't patronize me." He explains to the very distressingly distraught Six that he's going to help this woman, but that he needs to figure out the whole situation first. Six begs him to help Gina, and he assures her that he will, smiling bitterly that she closely resembles someone he loves very much. Six goes still, full of grief, staring down at Gina, and Gaius asks her to leave him alone with her for a while. She nods slowly, and is gone.
Out in the corridor, Gaius is explaining things to Cain. Fisk is trailing behind them, looking bemused, and Cain is showing zero cards. Gaius explains that the horrible mental damage of whatever was done means positively that "Cylon consciousness is just as susceptible to the same pressures and cleavages as the human psyche; it can be manipulated in the same fashion." Nice compartmentalization there, buddy. Basically, he's congratulating Cain on figuring out that torture works on people. Gaius cautions Cain that she has already used "the stick," but now it's time for "the carrot." Cain barely blinks before ordering Fisk to be of aid to Gaius in any way he needs.
In the Pegasus meeting room, Cain discusses the logs with Adama. There's a sort of backhanded indication that she's congratulating him on surviving his own incompetence. She then fills him in on the Cylon Fleet she's been tracking. There are two basestars, around a dozen support ships, and a brand-new mystery vessel. She shows Adama some recon pictures, including a more rounded ship in the background. They discuss the mystery ship, wondering if it's a command and control vessel, or a Raider factory, or what. Cain points out that the Fleet is protecting it. I totally think it's a consciousness transmitter, as I said in the recaplet: a way station to get Cylon souls back home. Cain is insultingly surprised by Adama's immediate desire to kill it, saying she'd been getting ready to "do a whole song and dance." She still doesn't know the Rules of Adama: Yell At It, Kill It, or Lie To It About Earth.
Adama offers to have Apollo coordinate with CAG Taylor, giving Cain the option of segue to how she wants to integrate the ships' crews. I think the Adama Family theme starts to play, which is perfect here, but either way, we're back to the normal show score. Cain's first move toward integration is going to be assigning Lee to Pegasus's Air Guard (under her CAG, of course -- my CAG is bigger than your CAG -- but that's just implied). Adama protests that his team works really well together, and Cain slaps him with a "I've totally read your logs, dude." She says that having Lee as CAG was a grave mistake, but that's just a smokescreen for her real intention, which is to throw her weight around by stealing Adama's children. Not to mention the fact that all the people she mentions in this speech are not only poorly behaved (so why would she want them except for intimidation?) but are also the heads of their departments and are cast regulars, so that relationships with Adama wouldn't be hard to deduce. The Glare is currently at Defcon Three. Cain quotes the logs on Lee's insubordination and occasional mutiny, and then moves on to Starbuck's infractions, sending the Glare to Four. Her final hits are Helo, who after all "fraternized with and evidently impregnated an enemy agent," and finishes with the excellent "...and let's not even talk about your XO." It's funny, but the Glare goes to Defcon Level Oh, Girl. Adama's thinking, through the rage, about how he's heard what this bitch does to XOs who mess up. Cain hands Adama a list of the transfers, and Adama complains that she promised she wasn't going to interfere with his command. "I'm saving your command, Bill," she says, and that's the thing, because she says it like she's right, and maybe she is, in some ways. But it's funny to see her lay it out for Adama (calling him "Bill," no less) like she's the rational one. Adama disagrees that the relationships blind him to "their weaknesses, and to the damage that they're doing" to morale and whatever. Cain gets steely and sizes him up. It's very subtle and very scary: "Well, that is certainly your right." Then there's a glare-off, and she dismisses him with a "You have your orders."
We're standing in Adama's office with Lee and Kara, who are reacting...poorly...to the news of their transfer. Adama tries to explain the whole thing about how, in the actual military, you have to follow orders, and he's damned understanding of the fact that that's only rarely the case on Galactica, so it's a bit of an adjustment. Kara -- this is beautiful, because it's very subtle -- glances over at Lee to see if he's going to start bitching, which: come on, and then they both start in simultaneously. Apollo's making a military appeal, that Cain's "fracking up the entire roster on the eve of a major Cylon operation," while Starbuck makes the, um, Starbuck appeal: Admiral Cain is an asshole, this is a load of crap, and the other CAG is a piece of shit. Highlights their coping strategies nicely, I think. Adama snaps them to attention and tells them to carry out their orders. Hilariously, Starbuck asks permission to speak freely and, perhaps thinking of how well that worked out with Dee, Adama denies it wholeheartedly. The twins are dismissed and slouch out like they have to mow not just the back yard but the front one too. It's hilarious, but also lovely, because their chemistry works so much better as very tight, very antagonistic siblings. I mean, I like it both ways -- that kiss in "Home" was adorable and pretty much non-sexual -- but they're so appealing when they're grinning and fighting and Kara's all, "Daaaad! Lee's touching my side of the seat! AGAIN!"
To the Pegasus briefing room, which is, as you can imagine, totally shiny and cool and high-tech. Why can't we have nice things? Taylor is briefing them on the first mission against the Cylon Fleet, photo recon on the mystery ship. He wants to hide behind a moon in the system, and Starbuck starts whispering and giggling to Apollo about the plan. I love these military school "I'm your momma now" scenes with Starbuck, how she keeps getting to go, "WHAT? I'm in the what, now? Adama lets us do whatever we want and we don't have bedtimes and even though I steal a Viper once every four episodes and run off into the wild blue yonder and the whole Fleet has to come save my ass, it's okay every time! What IS this shit?" Taylor finally calls on her, and the giggling Starbuck goes from back-of-the-class joking to really fucking hostile superquick: "Your plan sucks." The other pilots gasp quietly as she continues: "...And the Cylons aren't stupid. That moon's a blind spot. They'll never go near it." Everybody shifts around nervously because you never know when Cain's going to show up and shoot you in the head. "You really want to get close? You've got to use the stealth fighter we constructed aboard Galactica." Whiplash, the pilot she was messing with earlier, speaks up, calling it a "homemade tin can," and before she can beat his ass, Taylor tosses Starbuck off the mission. She looks to Apollo, of all people, and they're both kind of WTF. Taylor puts Whiplash and "Thumper" into action and says that Apollo will be piloting a Raptor with Taylor. Ouch. Starbuck complains about all of everything in the world and points out that "driving a fracking Raptor" is "humiliating," which, go tell Boomer and Helo that, but I know what she means. Lee sneaks Starbuck a bag with a camera and tells her to do her own recon mission in the Blackbird, and they grin conspiratorially. As they break, she claps him on the shoulder and takes off grinning.
In the Galactica Tool Room, the two crews are drinking moonshine. Vireem, apparently, toasts everybody, and for a second he's really quite good-looking. Everybody drinks, and Chief asks Laird where the Blackbird went. Laird calls Starbuck "Lieutenant Thrace," which you never hear, and says he was told that Cain wanted a performance check. Chief has questions about this total lie, for which Laird was unprepared because he's never dealt with Starbuck before, but another of the Pegasus crew starts yelling about how much booze rules. "This place is a fracking party!" he screams, and Vireem pipes up, "Oh, I heard you guys even got yourselves a Cylon. Heard she's a hot one, too." The boozehound one, Gage, gets pretty lewd at this point, doing a vulgar dance, and they start up with that gang-rapist homoeroticism bullshit that I will never understand, except to say, "Occam's Razor, guys," so they don't notice Helo's face. You know the one. They keep going on and on about how they're looking forward to raping Boomer. Cally and some female techs are grossed out and angry -- I wonder the percentage on how much that has to do with Boomer and how much has to do with what happened to Cally on the Astral Queen. Well, Cally loves Chief too, though, so she's got a lot going on right now. Chief tries to calm them down and shut them the hell up, and Vireem starts joking that Chief must have a "soft spot for the little robot girl."
Cut to Sharon's cell, where she's doing crunches. Thorne enters with some heavily-armed Marines and Boomer stands up, roughly asking, "Who the hell are you?" He cocks his head at her.
Back in the even-more-appropriately-named-than-ever Tool Room, Vireem and Gage are laughing nostalgically about their abuse of Gina: Thorne put up a sign reading "Please Disturb" on the brig, and the Pegasus crewmen started lining up. Vireem jokes about how eventually she just laid there, blankly: "Like, duhhhhh..." Cally and the other women tell them to fuck off, and leave. Vireem and Gage continue to laugh drunkenly. (Note to my dear readers: When this point comes, at the frat party? And it will. Please, please take a leaf from Cally's book here, because it's not going to get better. Trust me.)
In Sharon's cell, Thorne shows her the recon photo, roughly asking the mystery ship's function, which she doesn't know. He grabs her by the throat -- why always the throat, Boomer? -- and shoves the picture in her face, demanding to know why two basestars would be tasked to its protection. Choking, she continues to plead ignorance, and he pushes her against the wall by the neck. He throws her onto the bed and slaps her, really hard. Coughing from the strangling, Sharon continues to insist that she doesn't know, but she's getting scared.
Vireem tells Gage that Thorne's plan is to "break her in a little" before he gives Sharon to the crew, and Helo about snaps. Chief pulls him back, and Helo asks who the hell Thorne is. "Lieutenant Thorne, sir." That sir should tell you more than enough about how drunk and out of the loop Gage is, as to where this scene is headed. Chief keeps calming Helo down in this soothing, repetitive, very insightful tone: "No, no, no, no." Like he's saying "Shhh." It's really a great character moment for Chief, because he's such an even, calming, good guy, even as he's hearing this shit. "Cylon interrogator," Gage continues. "Rides 'em hard and keeps 'em talkin'." Helo and Chief look at each other intensely. Vireem, a bit quicker on the uptake, shouts, "Your little robot girl is in for quite a ride." There's a yee-haw, and Helo lunges. Again, Chief pulls him back, pointing out that they have somewhere they both should really, really be right now, and they take off together.
Thorne continues beating hell out of Sharon, and she's crying. "What the frack?" she screams, and it's a very real moment, like when Thorne first walked in, that reminds you: She's Sharon Valerii. Lieutenant Junior Grade Sharon "Boomer" Valerii, pilot T-, from Aerolon Colony. Cylon or not, she's a Colonist and a Raptor pilot on the inside, in her heart, and this kind of thing is just not done in the Fleet. It doesn't compute. She's also pregnant with some kind of Messiah baby, which explains her state of mind further. Thorne tells the men to hold her, and pushes her face-first onto the bed. A Marine kneels on the other side of the bed, holding her arms above her head. Face down with your arms restrained is the hardest possible position to get out of. Thorne grabs at his pants. I don't want to talk about this anymore.
In the corridor, Helo and Tyrol are running very fast and pushing people out of the way. Chief continues with the single-word thoughts, shouting "Move, move, move, move!" He and Helo enter Sharon's cell as Thorne is pulling down his pants. Over her screams and crying, Chief and Helo start beating the fuck out of the men. Chief hurls Thorne down and his head is bloodied on a cell bolt. I hope the fucker's dead. The guys start beating up the other Marines, but the armed guards recover from the surprise and pull their guns. One very nervous guard orders them onto their knees, and they comply. Another guard takes Thorne's vitals and pronounces him good and fucking dead. Helo and Chief kneel, breathing hard, still enraged. Sharon curls, sobbing, over her knees and onto the floor, and pulls a pitifully small blanket off the cot, over her head, to hide her face.
Helo and Chief are in chains, sitting grimly in a Raptor which is headed back to the Pegasus. At their feet lies the body of Lieutenant Thorne, and they can't even move their feet to kick him. Adama and Cain argue about the assault: Adama feels the court martial should be held on Galactica, since that's where the accident happened. Cain pulls rank, and when Adama complains that they are, after all, his men, she replies that one of her men is dead. Adama points out that their matchingly intense feelings about the case prove that the trial should be impartial. Cain: "Oh, you mean an independent tribunal? Because according to your logs, Commander, you dissolved an independent tribunal when you didn't like the verdict." He does not reply "It's because the bitch got crazy, just like you." She continues, pointing out that Chief Tyrol was the one on trial for that one, too, which is -- point taken, but -- not really material. Adama sighs, "That was a different time," and Cain agrees wholeheartedly: "I'll be in touch, Commander Thank you."
Back in the Pegasus brig, the guards unchain Gina. Baltar puts down a plate of unidentifiable space food. Gaius dismisses the guards somewhat curtly, and once they're gone, he takes off his jacket and looks at her, appalled and unsure. She lies, still unmoving. There is weird, loud space guitar as she stares at the food, dead behind the eyes. Gaius assures her that it's not a trick, and slides down the brig wall to sit and watch her. His speech here goes back and forth from conversational to really fucking broken, and it's pretty difficult to watch. You don't really go to Gaius for angst unless it's, like, hilarious angst. Too touchy, to ask us to sympathize with him until now. It's pretty much representative of the episode: really, really well done, and really, really hard to watch. He just starts talking to her, watching her lie there, and tells her that on Caprica -- mentioning that he sometimes forgets there ever was a world, before the attack -- he was in love with a woman: "She was unique. Beautiful, clever, intensely sensual." There's a close-up, and he's choking up pretty bad here: "She was a Cylon. And she changed my life." He says, doubly, that she's quite literally been in his thoughts ever since: "Because I love her. To this very day, I love her. And she looks exactly like you." There's a close-up on Gina, and she somehow moves her face without moving her face in any way. "My name is Gaius Baltar, and I'm here to help you." It's intense. Gina carefully, slowly, painfully reaches out for a slice of fruit. She can barely move. Her hand scrapes across the floor, too weak just to reach across the space between. She slowly puts it in her mouth and begins to cry, sobbing weakly. Gaius stars to cry. Also, everybody else does.
In Taylor's Raptor, he's being such a dick that Moore giggles about it on the podcast: "I love what a fucking prick this guy is!" Taylor bugs Lee about his "distraction," and Apollo notes that two of his friends have been arrested for treason. Taylor suggests that this be filed under "not [his] problem," and snaps a bunch of nothing at Lee, before setting their jump mark at ten minutes.
Cally approaches Adama for word on Chief, and Adama says Chief's going to stand trial. Gaeta interrupts Adama's comforting of Cally with a call from Tigh at CIC. Tigh says that, per Fisk, the court martial has...ended. Adama asks the appropriate question, which is, "When exactly did it start?" Tigh doesn't know, because of course it didn't really happen, but says that the verdict is execution, for murder and treason. Adama stares up, then down, and then almost breaks. Cally's eyes get wide as Adama orders a Marine strike team to action in a Raptor, and then activates the alert fighters. He sends Cally off with a gruff "You have work to do," and they take off. There are very good violins that go crazy now.
Adama duallas to Cain that she is full of shit and gave the guys no kind of fair trial. Throughout this scene, the cameras on Galactica and Pegasus CIC deck and it's very intense. Cain imperiously assures Adama that she was very fair, weighing their statements and the guards', and taking into consideration their service records and commendations. I like that she included that last part, like it proves that this wasn't a Kangaroo Court. Cain: "It was a difficult decision, Commander, but I dare say it was a fair one." Adama points out Helo and Chief's right to a jury trial, and Cain response is...not comprehensible to me personally but you probably know what she means: "I am a flag officer on detached service during a time of war." The "time of war" part, I get that, but the other stuff I don't know why it's important. Adama -- this is great -- covers the phone with his hand, because even though this is the future we still use payphones, which I do enjoy stylistically, and tells Tigh to launch the fighters. He then uncovers the phone to bitch at Cain some more. Cain takes offense when Adama says, "I'm not going to let you execute my men," and she strongly suggests that he rephrase.
Fisk tells the Admiral that Galactica is launching Vipers and a Raptor, and Cain asks Adama why on Earth he's doing that. I love her take on this scene, like no matter what they are going to be having a civil conversation, while at the same time notifying him that she's got his Vipers on dradis. It's all very 24, this. (Actually, this whole episode has a very frantic, intense 24 vibe about it, only on that show, all the people act like robots and you don't care about their feelings, while on this show, all the robots act like people, and you do. I'm not hating, I'm just noticing: it's not even a dis, I like them both, but the point of 24 is radically not feelings, psychology, ontology, or theology, while the point of this show kind of...radically is.) Adama responds, equally politely, with a request that Cain arrange for Chief and Helo to be handed over to the Galactica Marines when they arrive. Cain slightly breaks here, with a simmering hysteria: "I don't take orders from you!" And Adama, given the perfect opening, simply says, "Call it whatever you like." Cain closes her eyes, because again, she thinks she's right, or just that it makes no difference who's right, but either way, Adama's being crazy: "You are making such a mistake." Adama promises a third time to get his men, and then hangs the hell up on her. The Pegasus crew stares at Cain, who looks blankly at her board a second, and then calls them to action stations. Fisk, the XO who at least called Tigh about the whole execution thing, points out that this is going to be spiraling out of control immediately, and Michelle Forbes -- eyes still closed, tired but not overwhelmed -- delivers this line beautifully: "Launch the alert Vipers. Adama has taken us over the line, he's left me with no choice: launch the alert Vipers." I'd be willing to bet that last repeat was an ad-lib, even though the dialogue in this episode uses repetition to good effect throughout, but she just says it so perfectly: determination, exhaustion, frustration, and willing Fisk's common sense right the hell out of her head before she has to shoot another one.
Cut to the exterior, where Vipers are flooding out of both ships (clear advantage Cain), and making attack formations. Fade to black.
So, cliffhanger. Let's see, we've got Apollo in the Raptor with that CAG dick, Kara in the Laura doing Cylon recon, Helo and Chief in custody -- and Gaius and Gina in the brig -- on the Pegasus, and an entire Cylon Fleet bearing down on the whole lot, in the company of a mysterious new kind of ship. And now we understand why the bastards thought we'd sit still for a hiatus. Boom boom boom. I'll see you in January.